The present embodiments relate to communications in an industrial control system (ICS). In particular, secure network communications for an ICS are established.
In a networked ICS environment, each member of the ICS network may need to ensure the authenticity and/or integrity of any received messages. Confidentiality of message contents may also be required. To establish this level of security, public/private key pairs are used, such as using a public-key infrastructure (PKI) system. A third party validation authority binds devices for communication through registration and issuance of certificates. The registration authority ensures that the binding of the certificates to devices is performed. However, this approach often necessitates complex infrastructure and administrative overhead for certificate and key management using third parties.